What is the difference between formative and summative assessment?
Formative assessment
The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to
provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their
teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically,
formative assessments:
- help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work
- help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately
Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that
they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include
asking students to:
- draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic
- submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture
- turn in a research proposal for early feedback
Summative assessment
The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at
the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or
benchmark.
Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they
have a high point
value. Examples of summative assessments include:
- a midterm exam
- a final project
- a paper
- a senior recital
Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when students
or faculty use it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.
